10-year-old Ayoub recovered dead from 80-meter well in Algeria

• Crews dig a parallel trench and tunnel through unstable soil.
• Civil Defense offers condolences after a days-long rescue effort.

A high-stakes rescue operation in southwestern Algeria ended in tragedy on Saturday after emergency services recovered the body of 10-year-old Ayoub from the bottom of an 80-meter-deep artesian well in the village of El Roken, El Ghassoul municipality.

The Algerian Civil Defense officially announced the recovery of the child's body, bringing a devastating end to days of intense excavation efforts that had captivated the nation.

Civil Defense leadership expressed deep sympathies to the grieving family following the extraction.

"The Civil Defense, on behalf of the Director General and all personnel, extends its sincere condolences and deepest sympathies to the family and relatives of the deceased, praying that Almighty God grant him vast mercy and inspire his family with patience and solace," the statement read.

Ayoub had originally fallen into the narrow, 40-centimeter-wide dry shaft after a wooden cover gave way beneath him while walking home.

Because direct vertical entry was impossible due to the shaft's narrowness and an estimated 80-meter layer of collapsed dirt burying the lower section, emergency workers embarked on a complex engineering effort. Teams excavated a massive parallel trench beside the well to reach the child horizontally without triggering further earth collapses.

Civil Defense authorities confirmed that extensive human, technical, and logistical resources were deployed alongside local authorities, partner agencies, and private contractors throughout the continuous around-the-clock effort.

Despite the exhaustive operations, rescue workers ultimately reached the child after he had succumbed to the severe conditions inside the subterranean shaft.